Big time local recruits make picks on signing day

SHELBY, N.C. - Plenty of high school seniors have their mind made up on where they'll go play in college long before National Signing Day, but not Dax Hollifield.

The Shelby senior linebacker had a long list of schools to pick from. He'd narrowed it down to Virginia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina and Stanford but he didn't make up his mind until the day before he signed.

He was talking with his dad about what would be next, and the impact one coach made on him stuck with them.

"Coach Foster at Virginia Tech, he told me he was going to come down every week, and I was going to go up there every week to talk football with him. It showed my dad he really cared. And he really appreciates that I will have someone who cares that much about me. And that's when I knew it. He started tearing up, and I started tearing up and I was like well, I know what it is now," Hollifield said.

He wasn't the only local athlete making a last minute decision. In Concord, four star recruit Rick Sandidge narrowed his choices down to South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina.

The Spiders defensive tackle chose the Gamecocks.

"They had a plan for me. Simple. No other school has told me that. They have a plan for me when I come there. It's like I'm speechless. I can't believe I'm right here, right now," Sandidge said.

From Harding High School, quarterback Braheam Murphy already committed to Army West Point, but on Wednesday he made it official.

"It's like a relief. Everything that I put in work for finally paid off but I know that I have a big journey ahead and I know I can't give up now so I'm going to keep going," Murphy said.